Carmen Reflects Upon the Current State of Contemporary Christian Music

Christian singer Carman Licciardello has recently lamented on the direction of today's contemporary Christian music.  He shared in a live video on his Facebook page and answered fans' questions. One fan asked him how the scope of the music industry has changed for Christians over the years.

"My experiences before 2000, I sold a lot more records," he answered. "After 2000, it was hard to chase people down and give them away."

Carman thinks people nowadays are no longer enthusiastic about God and His church anymore. "People just enjoyed being in and around the family of God more. And Christian music, there were more concerts, there were more things to do. There was more of a fascination of the Gospel set to music ... in the past 15 to 20 years," he said.

Nevertheless, Carman is hopeful that the music landscape will change and people will reclaim their love for God."I see a turnaround, I see more television networks start to come back. You can only stay away from God's Word so long, and that's what people need to thrive on. So I think the necessity for worship in Christian music is coming back," Carman said.

In 1980, Carmen made a custom album titled God's Not Finished with Me. The following year, he was invited by Bill Gaither to tour with The Bill Gaither Trio. After relocating to Tulsa, Oklahoma, he released a moderately successful eponymous debut album (later issued as Some-o-Dat) in 1982 - which contained mostly novelty songs. Then, with the release of the live album Sunday's On The Way in 1983, a string of CCM chart successes started, beginning with the title song.

As he continued his music career, Carman established the nonprofit organization Carman Ministries. With the 1985 release of The Champion came his first number-one song, of the same name. Then 1989 brought Carman his first number one album, Revival in the Land.

Between 1987 and 1989, he was named Charisma magazine's readers' choice for favorite male vocalist. In 1990 and 1992, Billboard recognized Carman's influence in Christian music by naming him the Contemporary Christian Artist of the Year, and in 1995, he recorded his first album in Spanish, Lo Mejor, which includes some of the already recorded songs such as "Who's in the House" and "The River". 

 

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